Skip to main content

Advent Calendar Window 5 - Rudolph's Tipple

It may be that Window Number 5 of this Advent Calendar sees my first defeat against a beer's Best Before Date.
 
For the past few years, Greenfield Brewery's Rudolph's Tipple 5% has been on of my favourite seasonal ales I've had on cask. I've found it a few times due to this brewery being located around 3 miles from me. It isn't a biased point of view, it's a fact that the warm, mulled spiced flavouring in this porter fits perfectly into my Christmas beer ideal. I saw it in bottles in Mossley Organics in January of this year. I picked up a couple of bottles, thinking I'd have them in the cold Winter months. Eventually I decided they would be acceptable for ageing, being strong Posterso despite having a best before date of June 2013.I generally ignore these dates on my bottles of beer as, aside from some cans of Boddingtons when I was 19, I've never noticed the affects.
 
"I'll protect you from the hooded claw
Keep the vampires from your door..."
 
Obviously I've mentioned this best before date because of it's possible adverse affect on this ale. So let's not get too complex with the tasting. It's as dark as you expect a Winter Porter to be and is full of mulled spice on the nose. The taste is full of this too; cinnamon, clove, cardamom and ginger dominate initially. But the aftertaste is very acerbic. There's a sickly, astringent finish in this beer that I've certainly never found in any cask version I've had. It's reminiscent of a poorly kept cask ale. Of course, these problems could have been apparent had I drank this in January, but I'm going to give this one the benefit of the doubt on the length of time it's been kept. Biased maybe, but this beer is usually a perfect Christmas porter.
 
Purchased at Mossley Organic & Fine Foods, January 2013

Drunk with a mince pie this time to try and counter balance the acidity. Those poor Advent chocolate figures

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Pubs of Stalybridge Part One: The Stalybridge Seven.

And a touch more ...  Rififi Nightclub - once the town's cinema - has stood empty and unused for four and a half years This is the continuation of my posts of regular pub crawls to try and get myself in more pubs and discover more. Whilst I grew up in an old hamlet that most were quick to distance themselves from, my address clearly stated that we belonged to Stalybridge. However distant the town centre felt I was a Stalybridger, a Stalybridgian, a Stalyian: you know I don’t think I’ve ever heard us given a name before. I’m going with Stalyian. After a few moves around the country and through various relationships, I didn’t expect to find myself still local to the town in 2017. Whilst my address hasn’t stated Stalybridge for 3 years, I still spend plenty of time in the town – not least as it houses my “local.” To many in the north-west, it is famous for its nickname of Staly Vegas , that came about (as far as I’m aware) through its late Nighties-through-to-N...

WHEN CELEBRITIES DIE - THE INFINITY OF PUBS

    Recently I was stood outside Huddersfield Railway Station waiting for my Replacement Bus Service. I was eating much needed food from a nearby fast food outlet and contemplating my next move. Other match-goers had gone home but I had over 50 minutes to wait for my bus. We’d already been to a few of our post-match regular spots and so I was contemplating somewhere new or different to pass the time now.   I stood in St George’s Square, behind the statue of Harold Wilson, and pondered where I should waste my next hour. And pondered and pondered. After deliberation that ate into much of my allotted time, I walked down to the familiar setting of The Sportsman, realising that there wasn’t anywhere different to go at all.   But whilst I deliberated, I cast my eye over the currently scaffold-covered George hotel opposite the station; a place I had been in once with my Dad. It’s downstairs public bar had stood as a firm and available option to match-goers fo...

Ten Reasons Why I Hate Brewdog

There was a time when I thought beer was subjective, when I believed it was there to be interpreted and commented on from a personal perspective. I used to form my own opinions about beer, pubs and breweries and sometimes I’d even write them in this little blog. Brewdog were no exception; I was happy to praise them when they did right and criticise when I felt they were wrong. Of course I now have seen that I was wrong to do this. You see, it’s not about opinions or personal preferences; it’s about following the crowd, doing what’s cool and avoiding controversy. At present it’s not cool to like Brewdog. Despite the fact that I still really enjoy their beers and bars, people keep telling me why I should hate them. You probably already do, as you are well “in” on what’s hot and what’s not. I wasn’t aware of this, the e-mail never landed in my inbox, but not wanting to fall out of the loop I’ve presented a list of reasons why we should all hate Brewdog so I can fit in with this g...